Three months of living had happened during the wait. One hundred days, a hundred nights. It took two days to strain it properly, first through a mesh sieve, then through cheese cloth. You can’t press too hard or the cloth will break. Time and patience are required to achieve the perfect liqueur, but upon completing the process, I have to admit it: It was so worth the wait.

How perfect is this picture, even in our own lives? Sometimes we wait, both patiently and impatiently. We question God. We take matters into our own hands. We feel like giving up and giving in, and sometimes we do. But, oh how sweet the reward if, when simply being patient is required, we can follow through and see it to the end. To reveal the rich, dark perfect fruit.

This process of making true French-style cassis revealed plenty to my heart about patience and waiting and God’s timing. This lovely, intense, fruit-forward liqueur is worth the wait. The process is oftentimes more important than the end goal or reward. I hope that next season you try your hand at fresh cassis. There is nothing quite like it. It’s light, floral pomegranate-sweet notes are balanced by the addition of champagne. So here, my friends, is to the fall and the waiting. All good things are worth a good wait.

In my dating days, my early twenties, I was a proud member of Match.com. I prided myself on how many dates I could go on. My girlfriends and I decided we’d go on every date for at least a month for the stories alone. I mean, they were pure gold!

One guy dressed in a wool three-piece suit when it was 95 degrees outside, and while sweating profusely asked how many children we’d like to have. Before I could even order an appetizer! Kids? Um, how ‘bout we start with egg rolls. Another guy told me he was 33, which was a stretch for my 23 year-old self, and he showed up and was like, “Welp, as you can tell I’m not 33. I’m 38...” Try 58, buddy. NEXT! This dude was in his mid-fifties. And so on and so on.

I’d laugh with my girlfriends, laugh about the adventure, and say yes to the next date. By the end I’d met a guy who was nice. No sparks but nice. He was awkward and kind and an attorney. Extra mom points for guys with great a great jobs, am I right? But this guy was a dud for me. No charisma and zero fun. He’d shoosh me if I laughed too loud at dinner and cut me off to talk about himself. I can remember prank calling him with my girlfriends and just laughing and laughing with our fake Russian accents, asking him if he’d checked in for his flight. Harmless fun, but he didn’t laugh, he was annoyed.

Since I was little my mom has asked if I’d like the $10.95 pants now or if I’d like to wait and save for the designer, well-made, incredible pants. This has been a metaphor I’ve since lived by for the last 20 years. In life and jobs and even my marriage. That nice attorney was the perfect example of what I wanted at the moment, but not the best thing for the long run. That guy was $10.95 pants (no offense to you, kind sir, wherever you may be).

We all love the store Target. Great clothes, generally cheap, but 3-4 washes and the love affair is over. For some reason I can buy a pair of $10 tights ten times a year but struggle to purchase a $60 pair that fits incredible and will last me two years. And there it is, my mom’s voice in my head asking if I wanted to buy pants for $10.95 for my whole life or if I’d like to wait and save up for those $120 jeans that become like an old friend for years. I’d choose the latter now. I’d take those glorious jeans that cost a fortune because they’ll be better in the long run.

For the past 20 years, every so often when I want something to happen yesterday – a contract, a job, in my dating years a relationship, now to fix issues in my marriage, a big break, even a recipe to turn out while cutting 15 steps – I can hear my mom gently urging me to consider $10.95 pants or waiting on God’s best. You see, it’s tough to not want the crumbs now. The relationship, the quick fix, the all-fat diet to acquire that smoking body. But I want the long run, the better bet, the fight for the best. After the long haul and waiting out that dream to come to fruition I’ve never thought, well, sooner would have been better. The timing is always perfect even it was a slog to get there. Good often takes time but the best is absolutely a lengthy labor of love and hard work. It’s always worth those hours and weeks and years it takes to get to the glory. This is often how God works in our lives. He is absolutely a God of instant miracles in some cases, but often times he loves us enough teach us and point us to glory due us in the waiting.

A close friend asked me the other day if I get nervous with all the waiting. The nature of my job is 42 irons in the fire and waiting for certain ones to be just the right temperature. My mom happened to send me this devotional from Streams in the Dessert that morning. It was spot on:

Therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you . . . blessed are all they that wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18 KJV)

We should not only understand the importance of our waiting on God but also realize something even more wonderful – the Lord waits on us. And the very thought of His waiting on us will give us renewed motivation and inspiration to "wait for him." It will also provide inexpressible confidence that our waiting will never be in vain. Therefore, in the spirit of waiting on God, let us seek to discover exactly what it means right now.

The Lord has an inconceivably glorious purpose for each of His children. "If this is true," you ask, "why is it that He continues to wait longer and longer to offer His grace and to provide the help I seek, even after I have come and waited on Him?" He does so because He is a wise gardener who "waits for the land to yield its valuable crop" and is "patient . . . for the autumn and spring rains" (James 5:7). God knows He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe, and He knows precisely when we are spiritually ready to receive blessings for our gain and His glory. And waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will ripen our soul for His blessings. Also, waiting under the clouds of trials is as important, for they will ultimately produce showers of blessings.

Rest assured that if God waits longer than we desire, it is simply to make the blessings doubly precious. Remember, He waited four thousand years, "but when the time had fully come, God sent his Son" (Gal 4:4). Our time is in His hands, and He will quickly avenge those He has chosen, swiftly coming to our support without ever delaying even one hour too long. - Andrew Murray

So, while researching cassis recipes I found dozens of methods. Some added wine and more sugar, curing in the dark. Some removed the stems and tails and mashed with no heat. Some recipes called for heating the mixture and allowing it to sit in the sun for up to four weeks, others preferred the temperature to be much cooler and recommended aging in the fridge only. There were several recipes that said to let it sit overnight and enjoy!

I wanted fast results, though; I had no time to wait. The other morning I was setting out to make the liqueur and I was determined to utilize the fastest method. When I started the mash and placed it in its jars I thought, this is so beautiful, quite expensive, and I would hate to miss out on something great because I chose to rush the process. I don’t want $10.95 pants – I’m worth designer jeans, folks. So, I opted to wait.

Now, as I write, I’m waiting for the perfect liqueur, bottled at the height of summer, perfectly preserved with time and patience and love. In a few weeks I’ll be enjoying a superior crème de cassis, impressing loved ones with unbelievably delicious cocktails, drizzling it over panna cotta, marveling at the wonderful agedness of it all. When that day comes in a few weeks I’ll write another post with a finished product and lovely champagne cocktail. Until then, let’s all find joy in the waiting.